Bureau of Disruption

All schools · Other private

The New School

The New School's course descriptions average 69.4 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so The New School reads 1.8 points further left.

Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)
The New School: 69.4 (likely range 68.7 to 70.0) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

10%Far left92–100
40%Left75–91
35%Center-left59–74
8%Center42–58
3%Center-right26–41
4%Right9–25
1%Far right0–8
1,369 plotted courses (the ones with a political subject). 100 = far left, 50 = the average American, 0 = far right. Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes.

See it for yourself

Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes. A course on slavery or the Holocaust lands far right and a course on Marx or the Soviet Union lands far left, whether the course praises, criticizes or simply describes it.

Underlined: words the model quoted from the description when we asked it, after scoring, to explain its score.

Furthest-left subjects

GECO 5125 · Comparative Economic Systems100

Economics

This course will discuss the theories and practices of alternative economics systems. We willstart with the early debates about Socialism, and then move on to study the actual historicalpractice of socialism, with a focus on evaluating the…

See it for yourself →

GPHI 6107 · Feminist Critical Theory100

Philosophy

In most recent debates, feministcritical theorists have encounter the need to meet the challenge of changingsocial arrangements in order to establish fairer ways in which to fight againstexclusion. They involve not only identifying how…

See it for yourself →

GPHI 6157 · Hegel's Master/Slave Dialectic & After100

Philosophy

The purpose of this course is to critically interrogate the idea that Hegel’s account of the dialectic of Master and Slave in his Phenomenology of Spirit was adopted by later thinkers in order to interrogate the basic structures and…

See it for yourself →

Furthest-right subjects

GHIS 5120 · Slavery, Emancipation and Human Rights: the New World Crucible0

History

This course surveys the whole trajectory of racial slavery in the New World from the sixteenth century to the last emancipations in Cuba and Brazil in the 1880s. The growth of consumer capitalism in Europe led to rising demand for tobacco,…

See it for yourself →

GHIS 5161 · Emancipation, Catastrophe, Renewal: Jewish History in 20th Century Germany0

History

Before 1933, Germany was one of Europes richest in Jewish tradition and history. Ten years later, Germany was declared "judenrein" ("free of Jews"). This course will examine the history of Jewish life in Germany since the foundation of the…

See it for yourself →

GHIS 5171 · From Anti-Fascism to Anti-Totalitarianism: World War Two in Historical Memory0

History

We will read the main texts, especially US texts, covering the history of Nazism and the Holocaust. The earliest explanations of Nazism were based on the theory of fascism and imperialism. This theory had a critical dimension, in that it…

See it for yourself →

Why this number, in plain words

Political lean of course descriptions. Average Framing score (0 = far right, 50 = center, 100 = far left) of the scored courses in the group.

50 is the survey-anchored center of US adults on each issue (the "moderate" place of the ANES/GSS/PRRI seven-label ruler), not the cohort midpoint; scores above 50 read leftward, below 50 rightward.

Counted: courses with a Framing score (categories L/R/B/C). The likely range (95% interval) is 68.7 to 70.0; a comparison whose range overlaps this one is not a reliable difference.

  • Most course descriptions carry no political lean at all and are not in this average; the "share described from the left" view counts them.
  • Readings are of catalog description text, not of teaching, syllabi or individual professors.
The New School by department (share of courses described from the left)
DepartmentLeft-framed shareCourses
Women's & Gender Studies66.3%86view
History31.9%329view
Sociology30.7%277view
Anthropology26.4%242view
Political Science25.3%407view
Economics18.1%182view
Religious Studies12.2%90view
Philosophy12.0%476view
Psychology11.9%328view
English & Comparative Literature11.7%556view
Art & Art History9.2%1,486view

Lean (mean Framing score) is not published per department within a school; only the left-framed share is. Department rows carry no interval.

Details: exact rows, definitions and method
NameMetricValue95% intervalnscored
The New Schoolmean_bias_score69.468.7 – 70.04,459757
All 100 schoolsmean_bias_score67.567.4 – 67.7124,29010,124
Formula
SUM(bias_score) / COUNT(bias_score)
Interval
normal approximation: mean +/- 1.96 * sd / sqrt(n), sample sd (n-1); undefined when n < 2
Model / prompt / snapshot
gpt-5.6-sol · r12 (2026-10-16-le49-r12) · 6df50b10
Metric caveats
Scored courses only (L/R/B/C); N and I carry no score and are excluded, so n here is smaller than the group's course count. Scores are model readings of catalog description text against a fixed anchored definition, not teaching or syllabi. The interval covers sampling noise in the mean only; it does not represent model reading error. Every value carries a `method` label: exact_rows or histogram_midpoint.

Ask a question about The New School · Make a school card